The disclosure is directed to imaging systems, and in particular to imaging systems that identify a document size.
In related art imaging systems, in order to duplicate a document that is placed on a platen, a scanner scans the document to generate an electronic image of the document. The electronic image may be stored in memory, which may be subsequently used to duplicate the document. Usually, the document size needs to be identified so that the copied image can be reproduced on a correctly sized paper sheet. Related art imaging system can accomplish this by either manually selecting the document size or by automatically pre-scanning the document using the scanner.
For example, U.S. Patent Publication No. 2003/0038992 to Stephan W. Emmenegger et al., filed Feb. 8, 1999, discloses an automatic document feeder (ADF) and scanner combination that automatically detects whether a standard-sized sheet is being fed into the scanner in landscape orientation or an oversized sheet is being fed into the scanner in portrait orientation.
Further, U.S. Pat. No. 6,574,375 to John F. Cullen et al., filed Mar. 12, 1996, discloses a method and apparatus for detecting proper page orientation of a scanned document image. U.S. Pat. No. 5,912,448 to Richard G. Sever et al., filed May 16, 1997, discloses a method and apparatus for determining an extent of skew present in a document being scanned using a primary vision transducer. The primary vision transducer is wider than the width of the media to be scanned, and is logically divided into a central image gathering portion and a marginal skew detection and image gathering portion.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,594,817 and 5,729,635 to Bruce B. Fast et al., filed May 22, 1995 and Oct. 17, 1996, respectively, disclose methods for identifying, correcting, modifying and reporting imperfections and features in pixel images that prevent or hinder proper optical character recognition (OCR) and other document imaging processes. While U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,594,815 and 5,590,224 also to Bruce B. Fast et al., both filed May 22, 1995, disclose processes for enhancing images of scanned documents that identify a variety of items in the scanned document which make optical character recognition and other document image processing difficult or impossible.